Tour of Windling Gables
So, I've been working on and off on my Guide to the Legacy Challenge, that has been taking up all of my Somnium time recently. In fact, I just suffered a bit of a set back with Maxis (finally!) coming out with a patch for University. Not that I'm complaining, I just have to go back and re-write a huge chunk of the Guide now.
So, I'm taking a bit of a break on that undertaking and am going to post a tour of Windling Gables. Please keep in mind that I can't build worth anything. This works well enough, and will last me the last few Sim weeks until the end of the Challenge.
As another note, I booted in with vsync off, in hopes that my computer wouldn't freeze while taking pictures, and I had forgotten that "q" allows the camera to move down in cameraman mode. Give me a break, it's been four months now. Also a lot of my Sims are in default outfits with default hair because I had been experimenting with disabling downloads to see if it would improve my game. I haven't saved, so no lasting damage has been done.
Finally, I took most of these shots in build mode so that I could "turn on the light" as it is the middle of the night on my lot right now. So, yeah, there are ghosts haunting and people stargazing right now.
First off, the front of Windling Gables. There are three entrances: one leading to the entrance hall, one to the skills room, and one to the study (this last being considered the front door as far as the Sims are concerned).
Let's start by going to the right, this is camera angle 5 in my game. Which basically is used to access all of the bedrooms, half of the bathrooms, and the skills room. This is the "north wing". The most annoying thing about the layout in this camera angle is when Sims stop skill building because their bladder is too low they will walk past the bathrooms across the hall and use the toilet in the nursery. This is the biggest in a rather long list.
This is the interior of the skills room. I often have problems where there aren't enough thinking caps, chairs to study in, or pianos to play on. A good thing about it is it was done in my favorite color at the time. The door directly in front of the camera leads back out front, the double doors to the right lead to the north hall.
This is the north hall. The double doors leads to the entrance hall. Every single age transition pic taken since third generation was taken in the entrance hall, which only contains a phone, an armoire, and a mirror. The two white doors to the right are the north wing bathrooms, and the door that is hanging open is the door to the Energizer Room. You can see just the tip of the double doors leading to the bedroom wing. Directly behind this camera angle is a door leading into the "sleeping" part of the nursery and a set of double doors leading into the "main" part of the nursery.
This is camera angle 4, the nursery. You can see the corner of the skills room and the nursery just sort of wedged in there.
This is the sleeping part of the nursery suite. A cradle for a baby and a bed for a toddler. There is a door to the right that leads to the main part of the nursery suite and a door to the left that leads to the Reigning Heir's bedroom. That was one of the few smart moves I made in building this house. It is very handy to have the parent be only feet from the nursery when the baby starts stinking or the toddler starts howling.
Since I didn't plan out the rest of the bedrooms all that well, the corner where the camera currently is sometimes holds a bed. It has been drafted as an emergency bedroom for various generations for Sims such as Hades, Europa, Lindsey, and Andrew. Yeah, I know, stupid to only plan six bedrooms in a household that can hold up to eight.
The main part of the nursery suite. Not nearly enough romping room really. The door to the left leads to the sleeping part of the nursery, and on the other side of the wall to the right is the nursery bathroom. Which is actually well placed.
The nursery bathroom. In reality you would not have a floor to ceiling window in a bathoom, but it's not like the Sims care. This is also the toilet that Sims in the skill room walk a mile to use.
Camera angle 8. I only use this camera angle to orchestrate woohoo in the bedrooms. The door at the end of the hall leads out to the mosuleum.
Now for the pictures of the bedroom wing. These were taken back in the beginning of eigth generation on a whim. But nothing has changed in all that time.
First bedroom on the right is the Reigning Heir's bedroom. The look of this room used to change a bit from generation to generation to reflect the Sims that stay there. In fact this room has remained unchanged since Poseidon became heir. Originally this room belonged to Aphrodite and Stephan.
The second bedroom down is the Grandparents suite. In this case Demi's room when the picture was taken. If you look above though you will see that I have moved the bed (out to the mosuleum in fact) and have not bothered purchasing a new one. As soon as Danae's first child arrives I will move Cassidy and Agenor into the Grandparent's room, but not before.
The Heir's bedroom, usually, but in this case the first born's. I really like the tree bedding. I probably should have used it in the Reigning Heir's bedroom, but alas. Originally this room was Prometheus'.
The Spare Heir's room. Right up next to the mosuleum. Done in shades of blue because that was originally Epimetheus' signature color and has remained unchanged in the generations since.
Directly across the hall from the Spare Heir's room is the playroom. Essentially it is only used for when the kids need to feed themselves. It would be better if the kids didn't have to walk miles to get to the nearest dish washer but I hadn't thought of that at the time.
Heading back up the hall here is one of the two spare bedrooms. This one was built with Hephaestus in mind, but redecorated to Hermes' tastes.
The other spare bedroom. Built for Jan. Redecorated for Shea. Forever will be considered the "Romance Sim's Bedroom" because of the amount of WooHoo that has happened in this bed.
Finally, the Energizer Room. Accessible from both the bedroom wing and the north hall, it is often used as a short-cut to get from one to the other by lazy sims.
The other half of the house is fairly straightforward. Here is the third and final entrance to the house and, subsequently, camera angle 6.
The first room is the study. The place with the only radio in my Sims' house, as well as the spare phone. I have found four desks to be the perfect number for my Sims. They never have needed more then that. The double doors lead to the dining room. The single door leads to the south hall. This room is also used by my Romance Sims as a place to romance away from prying eyes. There is a stand of Cool Shades in the immediate right corner of the room.
Next is camera angle 7. I primarily use this when I want to click on plates of food to tell Sims to eat, or when it is time for a Sim to have a birthday, which always takes place in the kitchen.
This is the dining room. The double doors on the opposite side of the room lead to the kitchen. The double doors to the right lead to the south hall. It is ideal for Sims to stop painting and only have to walk a few feet to have their hunger, comfort, and social taken care of.
The kitchen. With the Table of Life (and Death) in prominence. I borrowed Jenba's idea to have two refrigerators and two stoves in my kitchen. In the end though only having two dishwashers has been helpful to me. I micromanage too much. Very rarely do two Sims use the kitchen to cook at the same time, unless one is doing it for aspiration.
The southern most part of the south hall. The double doors to the left lead to the kitchen. The door to the right leads to the wedding area. Hermes was pretty much chained to that chocolate making machine most of his life and proved the fact that Sims can not become "attached" to career reward objects. Hermes is my only ghost that doesn't cheer for anything when he haunts.
Rotating the camera a little to the right You see the one and only form of serious fun on the lot. The pinball machines. I really like them because they build fun and social the fastest and they build relationships at the same time.
Rotating it again to the right you see the row of easels that most of my poor Sims end up chained to for most of their life. Farther down the hall you can see the south wing's bathrooms and the double doors leading to the entrance hall.
Just outside the door at the other end of the south hall is the wedding area. When there isn't a wedding about to happen I don't have the tables out there. Otherwise Sims will randomly decide to go eat out there and it is a pain to clean up.
The pool is also right there, and way larger then the family strictly needs since I can count on one hand the number of times the family has used it in as many generations. In the distance you can see the family tree, which has been there since first generation, as well as the mosuleum. The easel that is used for painting family portraits is also kept there by the swings.
Finally, camera angle 9...
...the mosuleum.
Whew! That ended up being much wordier then I intended it to be! Well, back to working on the monster of a Guide. I might get out a Legacy Callenge score card before then. I will definitely get out another Finds post before then, at least. Thanks for sticking with me.
Posted by Bitsy at 04:14 PM Comments
Oh I'm glad you've finished this. I've been looking forward to it. I'm really impressed by the logical way this house is arrange. Everything seems to have a purpose.
Posted by: Amanda on October 14, 2005 07:40 AM
the house is great! looks so cool and real, and your pictures are amazing, so is the blur effect u added!
Posted by: kalamar37 on October 15, 2005 11:09 PM
Wow, that house is HUGE. But like Amanda said, very logically arranged, and no space wasted. Fascinating tour. I love how you've decorated everything -- even the skills room looks elegant. My skills rooms always look cluttered and uninteresting. :-) And I didn't know you were writing a Legacy Challenge guide -- I look forward to reading that!
Posted by: Jen on October 16, 2005 02:17 AM
Wow Bitsy! Could you post it for download lol? I would love to use it as my legacy house!
Posted by: Owl on August 24, 2006 12:45 PM
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